Undeveloped
by canadian author
Summary: "These are pictures my brother took of you guys when he was at Hogwarts. I think he'd want you to have them." [post-war oneshot]


After the Battle of Hogwarts, the adoring public demanded they would be allowed to throw a party for their heroes who had fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. They decorated Diagon Alley for the so-called party. There were decorations that praised them, confetti lying the streets, and plenty of food. Those who fought in the battle felt honored by the gesture but at the same time, it was too many people for them to actually celebrate with each other that the war was over. They all knew thought that in a few days, they'd be at the Burrow for a proper celebration free of the public eye.

All the civilians who came desperately wanted to meet the war heroes, mobbing around each and every one. The mobs varied in size, though undoubtedly the Chosen One's was the largest of them all. It was practically suffocating him. The mob was complete with teenage girls that had a crush on the Boy Who Lived and middle aged couples that wanted him to kiss their baby that they named after him. He would occasionally crane his neck to see over the mob of people in hopes of finding someone that he actually knew. It was pretty tiring for him to stand there, sign autographs, take pictures, and listen to the same comments over and over again.

"Harry! Harry! Can I get a picture!"

"Are you dating anyone?"

"We owe you our lives!"

Harry appreciated the sentiment and how grateful people were but at the same time, he just wanted to be alone. He didn't want hundreds of people swarming him because he saved their lives; he wanted to be with people that would stay with him even if he didn't save the world. He wanted to be at the Burrow, eating dinner with the Weasleys and playing Quidditch in their backyard.

After signing what was probably the 500th picture of him, he heard a somewhat familiar voice calling for him. He looked up immediately to see who was yelling for him because he could've _sworn_ the voice he heard belonged to a dead boy.

"Harry! It's me! Dennis Creevey! Please, I need you!" the voice called.

A pang of guilt hit Harry's heart. Dennis's older brother Colin had died while fighting for the cause. He didn't have to-he was only 16-but yet he still showed up and ending up dying for Harry. It was terrible. While a lot of the people who died were of age, Colin didn't even have his 17th birthday. He didn't even get to legally Apparate and he was dead-just like Cedric.

"Hey guys?" he said to the crowd, who were more than willing to do whatever he told him. "Can you guys move apart? My friend is trying to get through."

The crowd looked around, all desperate to see who Harry wanted to see. Soon enough though, Dennis was able to get through. He was hit by a wave of shock because Dennis had grown up to look just like Colin had at that age: same mousy brown hair, same pale brown eyes, same pale skin. The only major difference was that Dennis had bags under his eyes, as if it hadn't slept for days. It would be understandable if he hadn't, as his brother just died a few weeks ago.

In his hands he held a big brown envelope with a paper attached to the front of it. Before Harry could greet him, he stuck the envelope out and shoved it into his hands.

"Dennis, what-"

"These are pictures my brother took of you guys when he was at Hogwarts. I think he'd want you to have them," Dennis said.

Two sentences. All Dennis had said to him was two sentences while his brother would've spent an hour delivering a well prepared speech. It was amazing how different they were when it came to their personalities but then again, Dennis could've just been acting like that because his brother just died. Harry didn't really know.

He looked down at the envelope to see the list of names. The names seemed to go on for forever: him, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Seamus, Dean, Oliver, Angelina, George, Katie, Alicia, Lee, Parvati, Padma, Cho, and everyone else in Dumbledore's Army. Even Fleur and Viktor were listed on there, probably from when they were at the Triwizard Tournament. On the list though were ink blobs that probably covered the names of those who deserved pictures but were dead.

He lifted his head up to see Dennis standing there, wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his oversized jacket. Harry wondered if it was Colin's.

"Would you like to join us? There's more than enough food," Harry said.

Dennis shook his head. "No. I….I just came to give you the pictures. And I didn't fight. Tonight is for you guys."

"But your brother-"

"-is dead." He shrugged nonchalantly though Harry could see the same hurt in his eyes that he saw in the Weasley siblings' eyes. "He's the one that fought. He's the one that should be honored. Not me. I'm just the guy that developed and delivered pictures."

There was silence between the pair, though everyone around them was talking and trying to get in on the conversation. After a few seconds, Dennis saluted Harry and said, "Well, I'm gonna go. I don't want Mum and Dad finding out I left."

Harry nodded in understanding. As Dennis was about to disappear into the mob though, he asked him, "Why'd you do this anyway? I mean, I get you're guessing Colin would've wanted us to have them but-"

Dennis snorted and turned around to face him. He said, "My brother may be _dead_ Harry but he was alive just a few weeks ago. In fact, before he left for Hogwarts to fight he told me he'd give you guys these pictures himself one day because he wanted you guys to remember the good times during the years leading up to the war. Said he didn't want you guys remembering your years as Hogwarts as tragic times leading up to the battle."

Harry stood at the 14-year old, dumbfounded and unclear on what he should say in response. Dennis was able to gather his thoughts much faster as he placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. He said, "Look Harry, you were Colin's _hero_. You're _everyone's_ hero. I gave you this because he was right. He knew you'd guys need to remember the good in the dark times and judging by the look on this face, you know that he was right. And if I'm being honest with myself, I needed a distraction. Sure, it may not be healthy to push the grief aside but I'm already emotionally traumatized so it can't hurt that much."

Dennis, who sounded much wiser than Harry had at his age, turned around and disappeared into the mob. The mob gave him a few seconds to gather everything Dennis said but swarmed after him, though his mind was still thinking about what Dennis said.

 _Remember the good in the dark times_ , he thought to himself as he forced himself to sign more pictures.

 **-o-O-o-**

Hours later, the war heroes stood in Diagon Alley all alone. The remaining Aurors had pushed the civilians out of the way, allowing them to actually enjoy each other's company. Harry used his freedom to be alone however. He sat on a chair, staring at the envelope that he let rest on the table in front of him. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Neville noticed him and made their way over to them once they did.

"Are you alright Harry?" Ron asked.

"It's Dennis. He….he gave me pictures that Colin took of us when…." Harry didn't even bother to finish it; they all knew what he meant. He sighed and opened up the flap on the envelope, pouring out the pictures on the table in front of him. "He said he wanted us to have them."

The pictures were beautiful, no doubt. They looked like professional candids. After admiring what looked like to be hundreds of photos, Luna finally was the one daring enough to pick one up, which was quite ironic considering majority of the group consisted of Gryffindors. She flipped one over and looked at the back, making Harry assume in addition to developing these photographs, Dennis wrote descriptions on the back.

"Look at this one. It's when you won the House Cup for the first time Harry," she said.

She handed the photo to him and he took it gingerly. Scribbled on the back in Dennis's handwriting was a description: _Gryffindor wins the House Cup in 1994_. Harry turned it over to look at the actual picture. It was him, hoisted onto Fred and George's shoulders while holding onto the trophy as a sea of red shirts swarmed the team. He smiled as he looked at himself. Was he _really_ that small back then?

"I didn't think anyone had any picture of this," Harry admitted.

"Colin did say that he wanted to make sure he remembered everything at Hogwarts," Ginny said, picking up the first picture she could find. "Hey, it's a picture of my first kiss with you."

He looked up from the picture of his first House Cup win to look at the one Ginny held. He and Ginny were in the center. She was still in her Quidditch robes as he held onto her tightly to kiss her. Harry smiled amused at Hermione's knowing face and Ron's shocked expression. It was definitely one of the best moments of his life and now he could see it from an outside perspective.

Harry looked back at up at Ginny to find her grinning at her. He planted a quick kiss on her lips. It wasn't as long or intense as the one they shared in the picture but it felt sweeter. It was sweeter knowing that when they kissed right then and there, that there wasn't going to be a war to tear them apart again.

"Blimey! Ginny look at this!" Neville exclaimed, grabbing her attention to a new picture. "Look! It's us from the Yule Ball!"

"No way!" she said, looking over Neville's shoulder to see if he was telling the truth. She let out a loud laugh. "You were _such_ a bad dancer. You're even stepping on my feet in this picture!"

Hermione, who had been fishing around the pictures for one that she was interested in, finally picked up a picture. She smiled brightly as she looked at it.

"What are you looking at?" Ron asked, leaning over the table to see what she was looking at.

"Me from the Yule Ball. It took me _hours_ to get ready for that," she said fondly.

"You really did look beautiful that night," Luna added in.

Hermione looked up from the picture to see Ron looking at the picture very thoughtfully. She rolled her eyes and said, "Ron, the ball was _three years ago_. Are you still hung up on the fact I went with Viktor?"

"No," he answered. It wasn't angrily though like everyone expected rather more honestly. He looked up at Hermione. "I just…..blimey you looked so beautiful and I ruined your night. I really am sorry."

Hermione blushed while Luna and Ginny cooed. Harry smiled and picked up a picture. It was him, teaching Dumbledore's Army how to perform a new spell. He looked so in charge, so confident. He wondered if that's how everyone else saw him. If that was the case, Harry could kind of imagine them picking him to be their leader.

"Oi!" George yelled, walking over the six of them with Angelina, Lee, and Alicia. "What are you for looking at? Latest plans for your next adventure? I hope not because at this point, you guys have done it all already."

"Pictures Colin took of us," Luna corrected.

Ginny picked up a small pile of pictures she compiled and handed them to George. She said, "You know for pranksters, Colin managed to catch you guys quite a few times."

Harry looked up to see George's reaction. No doubt, the pictures Ginny handed her brother consisted of him with his late twin. Everyone stopped to see how he'd react. They all knew he wouldn't cry in front of them because he was trying to convince everyone that he was really moving on but Harry was kind of hoping he would. He knew best of all it wasn't good for George to bottle up his grief.

Instead though, George grinned like he used to when Fred was around. He said, "That Colin kid had a gift."

"I know right," Angelina agreed as she looked at the picture. "The lighting in that is great since the halls were so dark."

George looked at up at her confused. He said, "What? I'm not talking about photography. This kid managed to sneak around Hogwarts at night doing who knows what and not to mention, managed to snag a picture of me and Fred without us noticing! This kid could've been a great prankster!"

They all shared a light laugh as they looked at more pictures. The others gathered around the table as the noise coming from them got louder. Parvati shed a tear when she saw a picture of her and Lavender walking with arms linked down the hallway, gossiping about other people's business no doubt. Cho too shed tears as she found a picture of Cedric kissing her on the shores of the Black Lake. Everyone laughed when they saw Seamus with his hair flying everyone and face covered in ash after _another_ explosion. Fleur began ranting about how she felt so old despite being only 21 when she saw pictures of her in her Beauxbatons robes when she first walked into Hogwarts. The Gryffindors all began singing an off-key version of "Weasley is our King" when they saw a picture of Ron in the final game of the 1995-1996 Quidditch season.

Dennis was right. When everyone stood there, looking at pictures and laughing about old times that were in reality only a year ago, the world just felt right. It didn't feel like a war just ended and families were broken up. It felt like Harry was 37, hanging out with people he hadn't seen in 20 years and talking about the old times they had when they were young.

The war ruined them but it wouldn't last. Time, both good and bad, passed. The dark times would pass, eventually.

-o-O-o-

Two days later, Dennis walked to his brother's grave. It was in a muggle cemetery, though it attracted visiting wizard and witches that wanted to honor him. He supposed that it was good that people cared for his brother but at the same time, he wanted them to leave his grave alone. _They_ didn't lose anyone; _he_ did and it was time he started acting like it now that he filled out one of Colin's wishes.

When he saw his grave, vibrant flowers stood out against the usual dreariness of the cemetery. But one thing stood out to him though. Resting against the headstone that Dennis had made was a picture. Upon further inspection, Dennis found it was a picture of Harry that was also autographed.

He thought the gesture was ridiculous until he picked it up. He flipped the picture over and saw written on the back: _When I was in my 2nd year and your brother came along, he kept asking me for a picture. I, being the angst-ridden kid I was, refused. I hope it's not too late_.

Dennis smiled fondly and stared at up at the sky, hoping that in whatever afterlife Colin was in he'd hear him. He said, "You picked a good guy to be your hero Colin. And I did too, even if you were a git sometimes."


End file.
